U.S. Senators Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) today introduced a comprehensive plan to find solutions to the complex challenges facing Native American children throughout Indian Country.

The bipartisan legislation, Heitkamp’s first bill as a U.S. Senator, would create a national Commission on Native American Children to conduct an intensive study into issues facing Native children – such as high rates of poverty, staggering unemployment, child abuse, domestic violence, crime, substance abuse, and few economic opportunities – and make recommendations on how to make sure Native children are better taken care of and given the opportunities to thrive. Heitkamp and Murkowski are both members of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.

“We have all heard stories or seen first-hand the struggles that too many Native children and their families face from extreme poverty to child abuse to suicide. Since I’ve been in public office, I’ve worked to address many of these challenges, and I’m proud my first bill as a U.S. Senator will take a serious look at finding solutions to better protect Native children and give them the opportunities they deserve,” said Heitkamp. “Tragically, for children in our nation’s tribal communities, the barriers to success are high and they are the most at-risk population in the country, facing serious disparities in safety, health, and education.

“We need to strive for a day when Native children no longer live in third-world conditions; when they don’t face the threat of abuse on a daily basis; when they receive the good health care and education to help them grow and succeed. However, we don’t just have a moral obligation to fix this, we have treaty and trust responsibilities to do so. The federal government pledged long ago to protect Native families and children. We haven’t lived up to that promise. But we can change that.”

“Last week at the Alaska Federation of Natives, a group of kids from Tanana speak up with tremendous courage and express that they have had enough of violence, alcohol, drugs, and suicide in their community. Their call for us to take a pledge to protect our villages against suicide, is a call to action for all of us. I am proud to be the lead Republican co-sponsor of the Alyce Spotted Bear and Walter Soboleff Commission with Sen. Heitkamp,” said Murkowski. “We must ensure our federal government upholds the trust responsibility, especially to our Native children, and this Commission will examine from the lens of justice, education, and healthcare how to improve the lives of our Nation’s native children.”

“It is also time we honor Dr. Walter Soboleff, our champion for cultural education in Alaska. Dr. Soboleff, lived a life committed to ensuring our public education system honored cultural values, and that our University system provided an option for students to learn cultural practices with the established of the Alaska Native Studies Department at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.”

The Alyce Spotted Bear and Walter Soboleff Commission on Native Children, named for the former Chairwoman of Mandan, Hidatsa & Arikara Nation in North Dakota, and Alaska Native Elder and statesman, respectively, is already being praised by a cross-section of individuals from North Dakota, Alaska and around the country. It has been lauded by former Chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs Byron Dorgan, the National Congress of American Indians and the National Indian Education Association (quotes endorsing the legislation are below).

Background:

Conditions for young people in Indian Country are tragic. For example:

37 percent of Native children live in poverty;

Suicide rates are 2.5 times the national average for children 15-24 years old;

High school graduation rate for Native students is around 50 percent, compared to more than 75 percent for white students; and

While the overall rate of child mortality in the U.S. has decreased since 2000, the rate for Native children has increased 15 percent.

Tribal governments face numerous obstacles in responding to the needs of Native children. Existing program rules and the volume of resources required to access grant opportunities stymie efforts of tribes to tackle these issues. At the same time, federal agencies lack clear guidance about the direction that should be taken to best address the needs of Native children in order to fulfill our trust responsibility to tribal nations.

To help reverse these impacts, the Commission on Native Children would conduct a comprehensive study on the programs, grants, and supports available for Native children, both at government agencies and on the ground in Native communities, with the goal of developing a sustainable system that delivers wrap-around services to Native children. Then, the 11 member Commission would issue a report to address a series of challenges currently facing Native children. A Native Children Subcommittee would also provide advice to the Commission. The Commission’s report would address how to achieve:

Better Use of Existing Resources – The Commission will identify ways to streamline current federal, state, and local programs to be more effective and give tribes greater flexibility to devise programs for their communities in the spirit of self-determination and allow government agencies to redirect resources to the areas of most need.

Increased Coordination – The Commission will seek to improve coordination of existing programs benefitting Native children. The federal government houses programs across numerous different agencies, yet these programs too often do not work together.

Measurable Outcomes – The Commission will recommend measures to determine the wellbeing of Native children, and use these measurements to propose short-term, mid-term, and long-term national policy goals.

Stronger Data – The Commission will seek to develop better data collection methods. Too often Native children are left out of the conversation because existing data collection, reporting, and analysis practices exclude them.

Here, as the State Legislature’s Long Range Planning Committee was told. An excerpt:

One school district where the gaps are getting smaller is Timber Lake. LuAnn Lindskov, who lives at Isabel, was selected last week as South Dakota teacher of the year for 2014. She is a math and science teacher at Timber Lake. Her work links students with physicists and students around the world in collection of cosmic radiation data.

“We know the teachers can make all of the difference,” Schopp said. “We see there are bright spots like that … Where we see it’s working, we have to learn.”

Young children in the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa tribe will soon have more opportunities to learn their native Ojibwe tongue from tribal elders as part of a language preservation grant from HHS’ Administration for Children and Families (ACF).

….

The grant allows the Red Cliff Early Childhood Center Head Start Program to hire a language instructor and assistant to work with children in their three Head Start classrooms. In addition, they will work with the Bayfield School District as they plan an Ojibwe Language Immersion Charter School for fall 2015.

Here is an article regarding the recent facilities tour the Department of Education took. This article focuses on schools in California, and new measures the state may pass to increase expenditures for such construction. A quote:

A long-time supporter of green school facilities, California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson said, “I’m thrilled to see these outstanding schools showcased as part of the national tour on best practices. The students, teachers, parents, and communities have made countless efforts to improve the environmental sustainability of their campuses, increase school health as well as boost academic achievement.”

….

At Grand View Elementary School, parents and Grades of Green founders champion Trash Free Tuesdays and Walk to School Wednesdays, things any school can do to start the cultural shift toward greener, more sustainable schools and communities.

His sleeves rolled up and suit jacket off, Obama warned that the opportunities open to him as a young college student in New York are threatened now by government spending cuts and a rapidly changing global economy that could leave America behind.

RED INK Magazine is looking for submissions for its fall issue. Any Native of any age is welcome to submit.

The only requirement is that the submissions stay on topic, that topic is storytelling and its cultural impact on the future. Who are the storytellers of today? How are the stories changing? Are we utilizing the power of story to reclaim and advance Native nations? What are the new modes of storytelling (social media, multimedia)?